Kirsty Johnston argues why in the expanding disability movement one should also turn to disability theatre as ‘one important place to look for disability history’ (p. xv), and that ‘disability theatre needs to be situated also within the broader history of disability rights advocacy’ (p. 6). Johnston asserts that many disability theatre artists, like many theatre artists in general, position their work as contributing to society's artistic fabric. She reviews the history of Canadian disability theatre in the first half of her book, outlining the relevance of disability theatre in the larger historical context, while focusing her research on three distinct cities (Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver). In the second half Johnston analyses specific theatres, performances and ‘aesthetic tensions’ (p. 45), or the desire for artists to maintain a high level of aesthetic without creating barriers to entry for disabled artists. She emphasizes the friction of performance venues and funding streams and the discourse between the artistic process and the artistic outcome, and highlights the debate over labelling one's work as mainstream, and over illness and disability, making the point that disability theatre not just is happening, but has been happening.

Johnston's brief and concise history overviews the political landscape of disability arts and culture, making a distinction between disability theatre and other types of performance, but the myriad of named theatres, groups, festivals and artists can make tracking difficult. It is best to see the history section as a detailed yet broad scope of what has happened and where the field of Canadian disability theatre is heading. Johnston does not intend the book to be an all-inclusive history of Canadian disability theatre. Instead, she contextualizes the work historically, while reflecting back on why this work has made an impact on the view of disability in Canada.

Johnston describes the work of specific productions and companies and their perceived impact on the artists and audiences, such as Inside Out's approach, which ‘involves a broader spectrum of activist practices which resists the “myth that creativity belongs to a talented few who are able to earn a living through their craft” and promotes instead the creative and artistic rights of all people’ (p. 32), or the show Skydive, which emphasized ‘how the company's interest in locating disability within universal themes has been a guiding impulse since its earliest days’ (p. 38). However, Johnston gives a disproportional amount of attention to disability work surrounding mental health issues – two entire chapters – and although these are important topics, the study would have benefited from the inclusion of additional types of disability theatre performance.

Johnston successfully positions her research between the mainstream theatre artist and the disability theatre artist, pointing out the dilemmas and challenges in creating disability work. What is disability? Illness? An aesthetic? An identity? A minority? An artist? Johnston turns those questions around for a reader in disability studies, theatre studies or minority theatre, or even arts administrators or someone who simply wants to understand more about disability theatre.